Mylan (MYL) Draws Flak for Over Pricing EpiPen, Stock Down

"From other Iowans I have heard concerns about the cost of EpiPens and the need to replace them once a year when they expire".

Members of Congress are in an unusual position as they demand an explanation for Mylan's 400 percent price hike for the EpiPen and focus attention squarely on its CEO: Heather Bresch.

A two-dose package has recently been selling for more than $365, according to data from Elsevier Clinical Solutions' Gold Standard Drug Database. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) also urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the company to determine whether it engaged in antitrust behavior. Bresch is the daughter of Sen. In a statement Monday, Mylan blamed rising health insurance deductibles for the increase in out-of-pocket payments for patients and emphasized its co-payment coupons and donations of 700,000 EpiPens to schools since 2013.

Despite stable manufacturing costs, Mylan Pharmaceuticals has increased the price for a two-pack of EpiPens from $100 in 2008 to $500 today, with some reports of consumers paying $600 or more.

Clinton also used her statement to plug her plan to address high drug prices, an issue that both she and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have pledged to take on if they are elected.

In this Friday, July 8, 2016 photo, a pharmacist holds a package of EpiPens, an epinephrine autoinjector for the treatment of allergic reactions, in Sacramento, Calif. Price hikes for the emergency medicine have made its maker, Mylan, the latest target for patients and politicians infuriated by soaring drug prices.

"I am deeply concerned by this significant price increase for a product that has been on the market for more than three decades, and by Mylan's failure to publicly explain the recent cost increase, which places a significant burden on parents, schools, and other purchasers of the EpiPen", Sen. He has proposed increasing the amount of negotiations permitted by Medicare in order to lower prices for those using the program. For example, pharmaceutical company Teva has attempted to get a generic version of the EpiPen to the market but was shot down by the FDA, reports FiercePharma. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), has been at the center of controversy before.

Senator Bernie Sanders, who narrowly missed out on the Democratic nomination for President, has also been left outraged.

"It follows that numerous children who are prescribed EpiPens are covered by Medicaid and therefore the taxpayers are picking up the tab for this medication", Grassley wrote. "People are making choices that they might not make if the cost were not so high". In February, the House Oversight Committee questioned former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli for hiking up the price of Daraprim, a toxoplasmosis treatment used by AIDS patients, by 5000%.